BA flight schedule / winter schedule
Dec 31, 2011, 8:13 am
#1
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BA flight schedule / winter schedule
What's the best way to find out the official schedule for BA flights? Using the BA flight search would seem like the best option but it sometimes leads to no results without giving a good explanation.
Also, can someone tell me when the winter schedule starts and stops?
Specifically, I'm looking for a flight from LGW to INN in November or December 2012. BA used to fly there in the winter season but the BA flight search gives no results for November or December 2012. BA's "Where do you want to fly?" link still lists "Innsbruck (winter only) (INN)". I wonder if they cancelled this route for the next winter season but I cannot find any announcement. Surely flights for the next winter season should be in the system now, or is it too early?
Also, can someone tell me when the winter schedule starts and stops?
Specifically, I'm looking for a flight from LGW to INN in November or December 2012. BA used to fly there in the winter season but the BA flight search gives no results for November or December 2012. BA's "Where do you want to fly?" link still lists "Innsbruck (winter only) (INN)". I wonder if they cancelled this route for the next winter season but I cannot find any announcement. Surely flights for the next winter season should be in the system now, or is it too early?
Dec 31, 2011, 9:08 am
#3
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Schedules are loaded a maximum of 330 days out as far as I know (although it might be 355 or some other similar-sized number). It would not be unheard of for a marginal route like INN not to be confirmed as operating for next winter until March or April.
Airline summer and winter seasons tend to coincide with British Summer Time, although this may again not be exact.
Airline summer and winter seasons tend to coincide with British Summer Time, although this may again not be exact.
Jan 3, 2012, 5:37 am
#4
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I can see them starting on 1 December 2012, but frequency and timing seems to vary as the season goes on.
The limitation with the BA website is that it will only show flights up to 355 days ahead, which is the same as the booking limitation.
The seasons do coincide exactly with British Summer Time beginning and ending. This is because, by law, BST begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October, and these are the same dates on which the IATA scheduling seasons change over. (And personally, I doubt that that is a coincidence.)
However, seasonal routes do not necessarily start and end on scheduling season change dates. So while a season's timings for a route like LHR-HKG may be pretty reliably obtained from ba.com as soon as you can get it to respond for any date in that season, a route like LGW-INN which only starts well after the winter season itself is underway can be more difficult to extract.
The limitation with the BA website is that it will only show flights up to 355 days ahead, which is the same as the booking limitation.
The seasons do coincide exactly with British Summer Time beginning and ending. This is because, by law, BST begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October, and these are the same dates on which the IATA scheduling seasons change over. (And personally, I doubt that that is a coincidence.)
However, seasonal routes do not necessarily start and end on scheduling season change dates. So while a season's timings for a route like LHR-HKG may be pretty reliably obtained from ba.com as soon as you can get it to respond for any date in that season, a route like LGW-INN which only starts well after the winter season itself is underway can be more difficult to extract.